Utzer crowned '99 champion
In the end it was closer than it looked at certain points during the season, still Ben Utzer managed to win his first F1 title, beating his teammate Rami Saidy by 12 points. Except for Buurlage's uber-dominant 1993 season and Martins' unchallenged '94 campaign, this marked the first time the the best driver of the first half could take the title in the end. While some argued about the fairness of his actions before the final round, there's no doubt that he's a deserved champion, seeing that only rotten luck prevented him from taking it sooner, costing him various podium finishes.
In hindsight, Saidy lost the title in the first few races, considering he was 37 points behind Utzer after round 5. Same goes for 3rd placed Kederer, who on top of that wasn't able to convert most of his 6 poles into proper results. Engberink impressed with 4th, especially considering that he didn't take a win. 5th placed Hunsley had a strong mid-season, while his early and late season performances were rather disappointing.
Steven Poirier trippling his career total of wins, and also his first ones since winning his home GP in 1992. Said also made it back on the top step of the podium, the win at the Monaco GP certainly was the highlight of his season.
The biggest disappointments this year probably were James McNamara and Ben Herbert. Having finished in the top 5 last season, they both dropped to the back end of the table. Lesley Buurlage on the other hand one of the surprises of the season, scoring 13 points and an almost win at Hungary, when he crashed out from the lead with only 11 laps to go.
The top 6: you can clearly see how Utzer pulled away early on, but got stuck a bit from round 7-12. Saidy with an incredible late season charge, which almost paid off. Engberink with a strong 2nd half, scoring 6 podiums in 8 races.
Some more infos and statistics:
- Utzer is the 8th different champion in 10 seasons.
- both Saidy and Utzer scored 5 wins this season, the same amount they had together in the 9 seasons before.
- Hunsley's win promoted him to shared second with Keranen in the most wins ranking
- 3 drivers of 2 teams got all the pole positions this season. Utzer doubled his career total, while Kederer now shares 1st in the most poles ranking with Hunsley.
- 8 fastest laps for Utzer is the most since Keranen's 11 in 1996, and the third most achieved in one season (2nd Herbert with 10 in 1991, shared 3rd Buurlage with 8 in 1993).
- 5 drivers who have participated in all races since the start of this series, namely Keranen, Laad, Herbert, Saidy and Wolf. Poirier and Rautavaara have entered the 100 races club.
- Utzer broke the 200 points mark, and is 7th now in the most points ranking. Engberink and Poirier both with more than 100 points.
- 4th constructors title for Williams puts them on level with Tyrrell (4 titles from 88-93).
- Williams is now in first in the most wins ranking with 36, 3 more than Tyrrell.